Thursday, November 20, 2014

#EdTechBridge is all about collaboration. The notion behind the community is to develop authentic relationships that are mutually beneficial to developers and end users. As #EdTechBridge evolved it became clear that most developers do understand the value and were looking for opportunities to create these relationships.

A few weeks back, Katya asked if BrainPOP could do some software testing with my game design students as well as Matt Farber's (@MatthewFarber) Social Studies students. For my students, this is a great opportunity as one of the key elements of my course is iterative design (the process of designing, beginning development, product testing, receiving feedback, and continuing development based on tester feedback). It is also important for my students to understand the importance of peer testing. The visit from BrainPOP was incredibly valuable for my students and an authentic testing environment for BrainPOP. This is what #EdTechBridge is all about.

Katya, Scott, and Will came to visit two of my classes yesterday. Katya is the lead on user testing, Scott is a project manager for in house games developed by BrainPOP and Will is one of the game designers.

One class was my 8th grade video game design and development class. They worked with paper prototypes of the game. There were two variations of the prototype to test certain mechanics that brainpop is considering for the game. It was great to see students make comments playing one version that affirmed the value of the added mechanic of the other version. This whole exercise was especially valuable for me as a teacher and a learner. Prototyping is an important part of the design process. My students create design documents and sketches of levels, but rarely create and test games with a true paper prototype. It was great for me to see the process. Likewise, it was great for my students to experience and served as a natural springboard to discuss the process as it relates to their games.

My seventh grade game design and digital storytelling students played a digital version of the game. This group will be going through their first iteration of peer testing soon so it was great for them to experience the process and provide valuable feedback. There is no doubt that their experience with peer testing will be enhanced from having had this experience. Observing the students playing the games and commenting on the game mechanics, periodic glitches, etc. was great. I think they were able to understand the true value of their contribution.

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Matt Farber teaches middle school social studies. He uses games and simulations to authentically model real world events. His students entire school year has been framed by theGame Theory BrainPOP video, in which Tim and Moby explained how rational people make important decisions—just like in a game.

Farber uses digital and tabletop games to support his project-based curriculum. His students have playtested games from GlassLab (SimCityEDU, Argubot Academy) and E-Line Media (Historia)—both companies that also playtest with teachers and students. In mid-November, Farber’s class tested two versions of a new BrainPOP game: two variations of a paper prototype and one version of it digitized. Both were multiplayer games. Like GlassLab and E-Line, BrainPOP brings in teachers and students early on in the design process. Because students knew that their input mattered, the BrainPOP playtest gave everyone an increased degree of engagement

Aside from resolving technical glitches, the iterative design process helps designers create fun and meaningful experiences. Playtesting with intended users sheds light on issues that designers may have overlooked. For example, one of Farber’s students pointed out that when she dragged a digital object onto a part of the screen, a box with a red outline appeared. The student informed the design team that the color red looked as if she was doing something wrong—even though her action was correct. This detail would not have been noticed if BrainPOP did not playtest with student users.

Monday, November 17, 2014

This week. the #EdTechBridge chat topic is #OER or Open Educational Resources, also referred to as Open Ended Resources. Teacher Tabitha (@TeacherTabitha) will be joining us as a co-moderator. I couldn't help but ask her after catching her tweet this morning,

Following is the blog post written by Tabitha. She asks some very important questions that will certainly come up during our chat on Wednesday. Below the post are my thoughts in response to the original post.

OPEN ENDED RESOURCES (#OER)

First, I have to admit that I had no idea what #OER meant a week ago. After participating in #EdTEchBridge‘s discussion last week, the discussion leader, Katya Hott (@katyamuses) proposed talking about #OERs or #ECE next week. I’ve been in the education world enough to know that #ECEstood for Early Childhood Education, but I am so glad I asked what it meant because I got several responses back from not only Katya, but also Karen Fasimpaur (@kfasimpaur), K12 Open Ed (@k12opened), and Alex Kluge (@AlexVKluge) as well as encouragement from Steven Isaacs (@mr_isaacs) to return again. After their explanations and a little Googling (I found this article) I felt like I was truly apart of a community where we could discuss ideas and I could contribute. Thank you guys for pulling me in, I hope this gives encouragement to other lurkers to join in on chats they are following.

I have a Love/Hate Relationship with #OERs. I use them all the time, in fact when I was asked to start a technology class at our school, that is where I gathered and curated the vast majority of my curriculum from. In fact, my class (or my sanity…or my job) would probably not exist without them. I agree completely with the concept that knowledge should be given freely and that learning should not cost you a thing. The problem that I have is that peoples time, your time, is finite and should cost a premium. Finding the balance in this equation, knowledge gathering/giving vs. time it takes to create resources to learn from, is my (although maybe selfish) problem.

I know that if it were not for other educators and developers that created resources that were free to me, I would be out of a job or have a very poorly designed course for a lack of materials and resources. People that develop games and tools that actively engage my kids are truly some of my favorite people. I strive to be like them for others by learning new skills (currently working on learning HTML/CSS/Javascript) to help develop resources for myself that I can then share, but then I become selfish.

Why should all of the time that I spent developing this, be free for others to consume without some form of compensation for my time? I will gladly give you the resource, but the time I spend is valuable and that is what needs to be compensated.

As a specialist teacher at a private school I make well below (about 15k-20k less than) what the average (public school) teacher makes in our area. I say that not to throw myself a pity party, but to say that if I could use the skills I acquire to help supplement my income so I’m not living paycheck to paycheck and better myself and my families financial standing, shouldn’t I?

Most developers of the content that I use are paid in some form or another. Maybe the content they provide is free because they have advertisers (abcya.com comes to mind), they are a developer and are paid through grants (mission-us.org comes to mind), they charge a fee to use their content (brainpop.com comes to mind), or they might work for a company (Google) whose purpose it to create and spread knowledge freely to the masses, but they (the individual developers who contribute) are all compensated for the time they spent to develop the materials.

As a private individual, is the only way to develop something while still being compensated to have advertising on the product, work for someone else, or to simply give it away?

Then other questions arise. How to I get the product out to the masses? How to I help and serve those using the product while still maintaining the full time teaching job that I love?

What are your thoughts on #OER?Have you developed something, if so what was your experience like?Have you used #OER from others? If so, do you know if they were compensated? Was the #OER that you used something that you could change and develop further or was it simply a free tool?

@TeacherTabitha is a private school technology teacher and school technology coach in Texas. She lurked on Twitter for almost a year before deciding to actually participate in a chat, got pulled in and loved the experience. She is passionate about becoming a #ConnectedEducator and trying to pull in other newbies as she begins. Follow her on Twitter @TeacherTabitha.

Tabitha,Thank you for posting this as it raises such great questions and certainly can spark our discussion for Wednesday night’s #EdTechBridge chat!I will gladly respond to your questions…

What are your thoughts on #OER?I am in complete favor of #OER! I believe that education should be free and we should share our ideas and resources. I am a firm believer in the power of constructivist learning. I learn from others all the time. In turn, I find that I have much to offer based on my areas of expertise and often this extends the learning to include my contribution. As such, we are learning together. I believe that I would be in quite a bind if it weren’t for freely available resources. In turn, I appreciate that I can contribute to the growing body of learning resources. Of course, there are many takers out there and quite honestly that doesn’t really bother me. If I can offer something and it is helpful to others that’s great. If it can further the teaching and learning of game design and computer science in an authentic way, that’s great. My contributions help me to be a leader in the field and that continues to lead to wonderful opportunities for me.

Have you developed something, if so what was your experience like?I have developed many resources. I use them in my teaching and am happy to share them in the hopes that someone else can benefit. Mark Suter (@garlicsuter) and I have been creating and curating content for the GameMaker Studio community by organizing and providing content for the YoYoGames Learn site (http://www.yoyogames.com/learn). Likewise I have shared resources and lesson plans on sites like Graphite, GameDesk, the Brainpop Educators blog, and my own blogs (http://www.gamesandlearning1.blogspot.com andhttp://edtechbridge.blogspot.com). In addition, Katya Hott (@katyamuses) and I started the #EdTechBridge community. I would have to think this falls under the #OER idea as well. It has been so rewarding to bring together people with a common interest in #EdTech and see them develop true collaborative relationships. This has been a labor of love and our hope is that the community will begin to grow both in numbers and in participation as others offer their resources.

Have you used #OER from others? If so, do you know if they were compensated? Was the #OER that you used something that you could change and develop further or was it simply a free tool?ABSOLUTELY! I am completely self taught in terms of what I teach. Well, I say self-taught, but really that means I have found incredible resources to learn from. The majority have been free. I would be in quite a bind if these resources did not exist. I do know that some people get compensated. I contribute $1 per month to a user on Patreon to help subsidize his creation of tutorial videos which can ultimately help me and my students. I certainly don’t mind and while it’s not a lot, I feel like I am supporting his efforts as in his case they take time from his contract work which is where he makes his money (aside from the money he now makes thanks to Patreon). While I am supporting this I do believe in FREE! I have mixed feelings about sites like Teachers paying Teachers. I say mixed feelings as I am not against it, but at the same time I feel that we can grow quite a community of sharing by contributing to the free eco-system that has evolved.

I hope more people respond! Great thought provoking discussion for sure!